Goal: Touch your toes
Touching your toes when you run or exercise
Dr Nicola Tik
You’ve finished a run or a match, your legs feel warm and heavy, and stretching is the last thing on your mind. If you run or play sport, flexibility can sit nicely alongside your training. It helps to know when to stretch and how it fits with your sessions.
There’s been a lot of debate about whether stretching before exercise affects performance. Research suggests short static stretches, held for under about 60 seconds per muscle, have little effect. Longer holds right before sport may slightly reduce power or speed.
You could keep stretches before training short, or warm up with gentle, moving exercises like leg swings, and save longer holds for after.
After running or sport, your muscles are warm, which can make stretching feel more comfortable. This can be a good time for your goal video. Many people find that a regular after-session stretch is easier to stick to than finding a separate time.
Stretching on its own hasn’t been found to clearly reduce sports injuries. Strength training has stronger evidence, and is linked with fewer injuries. This is one reason your goal videos combine strength moves through a full range with stretches.
Building strength through a full range is also linked with better flexibility, so the two support each other.
Running and many sports work your hamstrings and calves hard. If they feel tight after training, a soft bend in your knees and folding from your hips can help you stretch them comfortably. A gentle wall calf stretch can sit alongside your goal video too.
About 10 minutes a week for each area is enough to see changes in flexibility. On heavy training days, you could choose a shorter or gentler stretch, and do more on rest days.
Try your goal video after one training session this week, while your muscles are still warm.